Ralf Edelmann Recycles Found Materials Into Fake Weapons

Sometimes it's the sad things in life that push people to create art, as is the case with artist Ralf Edelmann's work. In an attempt to try to understand what drove a 17-year-old boy to kill 16 teenagers in a horrible episode back in 2009, the German artist started building makeshift weapons from scraps. Critical with a tinge of humor, his arms are constructed using everything from old pieces of wood to frames and flooring tiles.

Edelmann was working in his studio, listening to the radio when a live broadcast of the shootings came on the air and relayed what was happening at the German school. Shocked by the thought of grieving parents and the murder of children, and reflecting on this while considering his own daughter, he started building weapons as a way to get in the psyche of the killers’ minds during the tragic episode.

Using humor as a strategy to make people think and laugh, Edelmann rather than tragic messages, the artist engraved his works with cheeky phrases such as, “Against bad art”, “Against fucking emissions”, “Damned dogshit everywhere”, “Away with all the fucking nuclear plants” and “Everything old must go!”

Each of his weapons are made from an array of found materials, such as discarded wood pieces, furniture parts, sticks, PVC flooring, wallpaper, ceramic tiles, old frames and parts of wine boxes.

Edelmann is currently looking for a space to exhibit his art. If you are interested, you can reach him here.